Nurses back law to allow sex worker groups

A total of 93% of delegates at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) annual conference in Harrogate voted for the move, to support the health needs and promote the personal safety of sex workers.

Stuart McKenzie, RCN Scotland board member and community psychiatric nurse, said: ‘Sex workers are extremely vulnerable so it is important that they receive the protection that the regulation of working collectively would provide them with. Instead of stigmatising sex workers, we should be able to provide them with healthcare and also with pathways out of the sex industry.

‘I have worked with a number of people who have been victims of mental, physical and sexual abuse as a result of being sex workers, so any measure which will protect them and not push the issue out of sight is welcome.’